Q.P.A. Sources Say Agency Ended Efforts to Cut Auto Smog in Cities

A major element of the Federal air pollution abatement program, mandatory measures to reduce auto traffic in New York and most other big cities, is being largely abandoned, according to authoritative sources in the Environmental Protection Agency.

The reason is that, even though Federal law calls for the institution of urban “transportation control plans” as part of states’ compliance with the Clean Air Act of 1970. there has been so much resistance from states, cities and citizens that it has become clear that the controls cannot be imposed nationally without an impossible mass of litigation.

Instead, the E.P.A. plans to leave adoption of the measures up to voluntary action by states and localities. Pollution experts consider the measures necessary to protect public health adequately.

The measures involve about a dozen basic “strategies” for reducing the volume of auto fumes, ranging from systematic development of car pools to the ultimate weapon of gasoline rationing. Three years of efforts to institute these measures across the country have been marked by controversy, delays and legal jousting.

“Essentially what we've done is abandon all these plans,” an agency spokesman acknowledged this week. “There's been so much static the conclusion has been that it's better to go the route of voluntary cooperation.”

This unannounced policy change injects further uncertainty into the already cloudy question of when the nation will achieve the air quality standards called for in the 1970 act. The statutory target date, long since conceded to have been impracticable, was mid‐1975.

The shift has special significance for New York City, which has had some of the worst automobile air pollution in the country, and the corresponding amount of litigation about implementing transportation controls.

The principal exception to the new “voluntary” policy is a measure that Federal experts consider to have the largest practical promise for reducing fumes: mandatory periodic inspection and maintenance of individual automobiles’ smog controls. The agency filed a test case suit in November to force the adoption of this practice in Cincinnati.

The agency's current head, Russell E. Train, an appointee of President Nixon, is expected to be replaced in the Carter administration. This could mean changes in any of the agency's policies. However, current agency officials suggested that the reasons for shifting to the “voluntary” approach on transportation plans were so compelling that alternatives would be hard to devise.

The agency's original calculations were that, in addition to all the regular stationary and mobile smog controls required by the law, 31 metropolitan areas could never meet air quality standards without special restrictions on auto traffic. Consequently, the list has been tentatively enlarged to involve 63 cities.

Early Experiences

Automobiles are responsible for a sizable portion of air pollution generally—70 percent of the carbon monoxide, 50 percent of the hydrocarbons and 30 percent of the nitrogen oxides.

The agency has estimated that transportation controls can reduce the total volume of car fumes in a city by as much as 30 percent.

Transportation controls first came to the fore in 1973 as a mandatory part of overall state plans for carrying out the terms of the Clean Air Act. If states did not produce satisfactory urban transportation control plans, the agency was empowered to formulate and impose them.

The agency at first demurred at doing this, because requisite fume reduction appeared to involve such impracticalities as eliminating nearly 90 percent of the auto traffic in Los Angeles. However, environmental organizations got court decisions compelling the agency to carry out the letter of the law.

This action in turn generated hundreds of lawsuits challenging the agency's authority to thus dictate state actions. Differing rulings by Federal lower courts led to several appeals currently before the United States Supreme Court.

Although the program has been under way three years, in terms of concrete accomplishments an agency official said ruefully this week, “The fact of the matter is that not a lot has occurred. If a state doesn't have a real commitment for transportation controls, there's not a lot the E.P.A. can do about it.”

The agency's deputy administrator, John R. Quarles Jr., said legal challenges had dealt “a crippling blow” to the program, and that “unless some major changes are made, auto pollution may never be brought under control.”

He said that initial court‐imposed deadlines had necessitated some hasty and ill‐advised directives and that the agency “has learned a great deal about how not to run a transportation control program.”

‘Understandable Hostility’

State and local officials had reacted to compulsory attempts with “understandable hostility,” he said, adding, “Without local support, even a court‐ordered plan has little chance of success—if real air pollution cleanup is to be made, the local community must agree that it's worth the effort.”

A draft agency “strategy” document for attaining Federal air quality standards now being circulated cites only vehicle maintenance‐and‐inspection as a promising transportation‐control measure. The paper says that “it is the E.P.A.'s policy that new and revised transportation strategies be developed through the normal urban transportation planning process.”

Among the original 31 cities, the agency calculated that to meet Federal air quality standards, 28 would have to institute inspection‐maintenance programs, 24 would have to restrict parking as a “disincentive” to city driving, and 19 would have to require “retrofitting” of older cars with special fume controls.

The agency dropped the parking‐surcharge idea from the program because of the instant furor it aroused and unanticipated legal complications.

Car‐Pooling Programs

What has actually materialized out of the program has been car‐pooling incentive programs in several states, preferential laning in a number of cities, comprehensive vehicle inspection‐maintenance programs only in New Jersey, Portland, Ore. and Phoenix, Ariz., a pilot program in Riverside, Calif., and voluntary pro grams in some other places.

An agency official said that because “we're in very much of a holding pattern” on the transportation controls program, the agency did not have a comprehensive list of what measures had actually been put into effect in what places.

An agency report last November on accomplishments in pollution abatement cited, in regard to transportation controls, only the handful of inspectionmaintenance and car‐pooling programs.

The agency has estimated that on post1974 cars, typical annual inspection charges will range from $1.20 to $5.00 and average repair charges, if deficiencies are found, will run about $30.

Typical of the frustrations the program has encountered have been two major controversies in California. Southern Californians spent most of 1975 disputing over a state regional law requiring “retrofit” devices on older cars, which finally was repealed.

Last year a five‐month experiment in restricting a Los Angeles freeway highspeed lane to buses and car pools during rush hours caused a public uproar. The innovation was halted by a Federal court ruling that environmental impacts had not been adequately studied.

New York City formulated a plan involving 37 variations and applications of basic traffic‐reduction strategies. including special bridge and tunnel tolls and limitations on taxi cruising.

But the plan's main trial has been in marathon court proceedings, culminating in recent rulings that the plan should be put into effect, on an unspecified time schedule.

According to a recent report by the National Resources Defense Council, a leading plaintiff in the litigation, “New York City sits in clear violation of the I law, and nothing is being done about it.”

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A version of this archives appears in print on January 14, 1977, on Page 41 of the New York edition with the headline: Q.P.A. Sources Say Agency Ended Efforts to Cut Auto Smog in Cities. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe